


Unshriven

by Niobium



Series: Avengers Team fics [3]
Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Community: comment_fic, Dialogue-Only, Gen, Ghosts, Spirits, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-15
Updated: 2014-09-25
Packaged: 2018-01-24 22:44:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1619681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niobium/pseuds/Niobium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers deal with the paranormal. Which is to say, they make a mess of a situation, and call in an expert.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a single-chapter, dialogue-only comment fic that started to grow when I came across other, appropriate prompts. The first three chapters are hopefully readable stand-alone, since they're for the LJ community comment_fic.
> 
> The last chapters will probably not come from comment_fic, and instead be their own stories.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony thinks Thor is more than just a little weird, even for an alien from an advanced society.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For these prompts at comment_fic: Dialogue Only, [MCU - Avengers, Any + Any, You actually believe in ghosts?](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/524972.html?thread=75662508#t75662508) and [Any, any, that is NOT how it happened](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/524972.html?thread=75668908#t75668908).
> 
> As the tag says, this is dialogue-only, but hopefully the voices speak for themselves more often than not. This is actually 2 separate prompt fills, and though I wrote the second one to riff off the first, I also tried to make it stand on its own.
> 
> The 'Graphic Violence' tag is mostly for an implied 'large slaughter' of undefined extent; nothing is really detailed.

***

"We should tread carefully. We would not wish to disturb the spirits of those who died here."

"Is he serious? Are you serious?"

"This was the site of a great battle, was it not?"

"Yeah..."

"Then the spirits of the slain may be lingering. We should take care to not anger them."

"You don't actually believe in ghosts, do you?"

"It is not a matter of belief. When the body dies, the spirit remains until it is sent on, or chooses to pass on. If I did not believe this, it would not make it cease to occur."

"Well, technically—"

" _Stark_."

"Look, I'm just saying, the alien from the super advanced society believes in ghosts. This is a little weird for me."

"I take it that humans cannot sense them?"

"No, we can't."

"Are you saying you _can_?"

"I am not well-versed in magic of the spirit, but I may feel them if I concentrate."

"Are you concentrating right now?"

"No. They may not wish me to do so, and could take offense."

"You're fucking with us. He's fucking with us."

"Could you ask them if they'd be alright with us looking around? We just want to know what happened here."

"It would be better if we had a proper oracle perform such a task."

"I don't have any oracles in my address book."

"Me neither."

"I forgot to invite the one who works in HR."

"Can you give it a shot? We're not going to blame you if anyone gets possessed."

"It would most likely be me they would possess—"

"Oh."

"Uh, in that case—"

"—but I will try."

***

“And then Stark had to go and mouth off to them—”

“Hey, that is _not_ how it happened, they were already pissed at Captain Sensitivity here for asking them why they’d suicided—”

“I didn’t say it was _suicide_.”

“Sorry, ‘sacrificed’, whatever you want to call getting all of themselves killed to—okay, okay. Next time he agrees to play John Edwards I’ll keep my opinions about the recently deceased to myself.”

“He _did_ warn us.”

“I’m sorry if I was skeptical that he could not only sense the dead, but even communicate with them a little.”

“He can control the weather and has a hammer no one else can pick up, but communing with spirits of the dead is a stretch for you?”

“Both of those things are completely explainable via—”

“He’s waking up.”

“Hey. How’re you feeling?”

“Did I not say to be respectful?”

“I thought we were pretty—”

“Tony.”

“Fine, fine.”

“You okay?”

“I am as well as I may be.”

“That’s not a yes. Did you get anything we didn’t?”

“Some of them showed me what happened while that one spoke with you.”

“And?”

“The object we seek is this way.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony decides to out-source this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This prompt at comment_fic seemed to be the perfect next-chapter: ['Marvel, any, paranormal'](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/549892.html?thread=77709316#t77709316). However, unlike the first one, this isn't dialogue-only, and this extends beyond the original 300 words from the comment_fic thread some ways. And, has edits.
> 
> And I cannot help but imagine Chiwetel Ejiofor or Oded Fehr or Alexander Siddig for MCU!Stephen Strange.

***

Tony reads the name on the business card slowly and with great skepticism. "Dr. Stephen...Strange." He raises his eyes to the man standing on the other side of his desk. "That's ah, one hell of a last name your family's carting around."

Strange shrugs, looking wholly unconcerned. "We don't choose our surnames when we're born. Once I was old enough to make a choice, I found I'd become quite fond of it. And you must admit, it makes for a nice private business name." 

“Yes, ‘Something Rich and Strange’. Very snappy.”

Strange smiles; it’s as unnerving as it is charming. “Shakespeare wouldn’t mind, I don’t think.”

Tony taps the business card’s edge on his desk, taking a minute to survey him, then gestures at the empty chair next to Strange. Strange sits and folds his hands, moving like grace personified. Tony suspects every single other surgeon on the planet is a clumsy drunkard by comparison. 

“Now. It’s come to my attention you are having a problem with ghosts?”

“Something like that. Thor—our friend from very out of town—calls them ‘spirits’.”

“I see.” Strange tilts his head. Tony knows that Thor not being human is, at this point, pretty common knowledge, but he _doesn’t_ know if Strange has access to any information beyond that. “And he can’t converse or interact with them?”

“No. Says it’s not his thing. Plus, human spirits, which he apparently wouldn’t know how to deal with even if he could.” Tony smirks. “He says we need to find a proper _human_ oracle.”

Strange’s new smile is the kind a vendor gets when they’ve got you right where they want you. Tony stifles a sigh and adds a digit to the projected hourly fee. 

“I must tentatively agree with his assessment. And I’m willing to investigate the situation.”

“Uh-huh. What kind of guarantee do you give for mishaps?”

Strange arches an eyebrow. “Mishaps?”

“There might be a thing. Someone might upset them. They might...react.”

“Mmmm.” Tony is pretty sure Strange knows that none of the things Tony has just described are in any way hypothetical, but in fact very past tense. “I have a standard contract for such instances. Shall I send it along?”

“Yeah. Please.” Tony scribbles his personal email address on the business card and offers it to Strange. Tony wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but Strange pulling out a smartphone right then and there and emailing the document in under a minute wasn’t it.

“Can I expect to hear back from you before end of business today?”

Tony sees a ‘new message’ alert pop up on his desk monitor. “Most definitely,” he says, and moves his assessment of Strange up a few notches.

“Excellent. As soon as everything is ironed out, we can schedule proper dates and times.” Strange tucks his phone away. “And, assuming Mr. Thor is available, it would be helpful if I could interview him.”

“You can just call him Thor. And I’ll make sure he’s around.” Which means he’ll ask Foster to make sure Thor is around, but that’s not really anything Strange needs to know. 

“Very good.” Strange stands and Tony shows him to the office door, where Ray is waiting to show him back out. “I’ll keep an eye on my email for the contract.”

“And I’ll tell Thor to free up some time in his schedule.” This is mostly a private joke, because Thor’s ‘schedule’ (when he’s not training or on a mission) consists of wandering around Earth willy-nilly, using his language magic to chat with whomever he comes across.

And Strange’s eyes glint with shared humor just the same. “Until then, Mr. Stark.”

“Doctor.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephen Strange finally gets a look at the device which started this whole mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 brought to you by this prompt at comment_fic: [‘Any, Any, When you use magic it uses you in return.’](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/550240.html?thread=77758048#t77758048)

***

Tony would give at least half of his best scotch to know what it is Strange sees when he looks at Thor. It’s clearly something _interesting_ , because there’s a brief widening of his eyes and stilling of his expression before his usual, amiable composure settles back into place. Thor reacts as well, eyes narrowing and posture turning just a touch defensive, and then they shake hands and he relaxes.

“Dr. Stephen Strange. I am honored to meet a Midgardian oracle.”

“Thank you, Mr. Odinson, though as you are the one from another part of this Universe I think the honor is mine.” He tilts his head. “Your people refer to someone with my skill set as an ‘oracle’?”

“Yes. Any who possess the ability to sense spirit, time, space, or consequence may be oracles.”

Tony can tell by the gleam in Strange’s eye that he wants to have a century-long chat with Thor about Everything starting Right Now, and as fascinating as it would to eavesdrop on that conversation it’s going to have to wait. He intervenes by stepping up to the two of them, clapping his hands together way more loudly than necessary, and saying, “Now that introductions are out of the way.”

Strange gives Tony a brief look which promises he’s going to pay for that, literally and maybe figuratively too. Then he’s all business. “Yes, let’s have a look at the lab and this device.”

The ‘device’ is a black lacquered, wood box with claw feet, a hinged lid, and a brass latch bearing no lock. It measures about a foot long, six inches wide, and four inches tall, and is decorated in gold filigree and shimmering red paint. (The one and only scan they’d been able to perform had revealed crushed opal was responsible for the paint’s unique look.) The lid imagery is particularly intricate and depicts a strange, chimeric beast—a mix of lion and dragon and insect in Tony’s opinion—chained to two posts.

The box is sitting in the 74th floor’s northeastern lab on a holotable, where Tony left it the night they returned from their mission. The next morning the antics had begun, and given how things were being thrown around and turned on and off he’d been reluctant to touch it at that point. Thor had agreed, and no one seemed ready to gainsay either of them. (They were lucky it was Thor who’d taken a tabletop centrifuge to the head; anyone else might have suffered a skull fracture. Thor was just annoyed.) Since then, various staff and Avengers had wandered by to peer in the large, bay windows at the nonstop action, but per Rogers’ orders no one had gone in. 

The moment Strange steps over the threshold and into the lab everything stops. Various equipment that is in a variety of stages of distress goes dark; books that are flipping open and shut become still; monitors that are displaying wild arrays of documents and images freeze.

Strange pauses, taking in the room, then continues inside. Tony starts to follow him only to run into Thor’s outstretched arm.

“We should give him a moment with them,” Thor warns him. Tony sighs and waits.

Strange does a tour of the lab, righting various things which have been knocked over, looking at the books which were yanked off their shelves, even reading the documents open on one of the monitors. When he’s done, he goes to the holotable and nods at Tony and Thor, and Thor pulls his arm back. 

Tony takes a hesitant step into the room, and when nothing flies out to whack him in the face, moves to join Strange. Thor is a few steps behind him.

Strange walks around the holotable slowly, eyes on the box. “Incredible. You found it in a cave?”

“Yeah—one under a WWI battle site, exposed by a sinkhole. It was full of remains. Skeletons, mostly, still in their uniforms.”

“Mmm. Were they running away from it?”

“Towards, actually.”

Strange’s eyes flick to Tony and narrow. Tony swipes at the holotable surface, and the images they took of the two chambers pile up around the box. Strange spends a moment tapping through them, then leans over and runs a hand along the box, never quite touching it. He gives the images another long look, and straightens. “Mr. Odinson. If you could tell me what happened from your perspective.”

And Thor tells him, pausing to explain he has just enough ‘sense of spirit’ that he’d been able to allow one to possess him. He admits it was risky and not a fantastic idea, but with a huge pile of skeletons facing into the dark recesses of a cave it had seemed like their best option. He and that ‘spirit’ had chatted quite amiably in the back of his mind, but this cut Thor off from any perception of his body, leaving him unaware that another spirit had taken it for a spin.

And immediately gotten into an argument with Tony and Steve, which devolved into a shouting match, which escalated into the spirit trying to attack them using Thor. Except the magic space hammer was, it turned out, a lot more complicated than any of them realized; the second the spirit controlling Thor tried to swing it, the hammer slammed to the ground with a thud that made the whole cavern shake. 

Unfortunately Thor’s body was still plenty dangerous even _without_ a magic space hammer to hit things and people with. Tony had been seconds from fetching Banner and Rhodey from the Quinjet when a a brilliant flash and a thunderclap had knocked them all to the ground. Once they could see and hear again they found Thor passed out in a small, blasted indentation on the cavern floor. He woke up in a handful of seconds, groggy but uninjured, and lead them to the box while giving Tony and Steve a lecture on interacting with dead people. Sadly, due to the altercation with the second spirit, Thor's first possessor didn't have time to explain why they'd been after the box, what it might contain, or what had happened to kill all of them. (Though he did identify himself and give the name of their unit, which Sam was able to confirm.)

Strange only asks a small handful of clarification questions; otherwise, he simply surveys Thor and the box by turns. After Thor is done Strange holds up a hand, eyebrows raised, and Thor nods. Like with the box, Strange’s fingers trace the outline of Thor’s face but never quite come into contact. After a solid minute of this he withdraws.

“You were lucky,” he says. “That could have gone much worse for you.”

Thor grunts and folds his arms. “It was not a wise decision on my part,” he admits. Strange shrugs. 

“The circumstances didn’t leave you with many options, it’s true. Forewarned—even at a price—is still forearmed.” He pulls a pale, knotty stick out of an inner coat pocket. “It seems likely there is a great deal of spiritual energy bound to the device.” He glances between them. “Would you mind if I harvest some?”

Thor’s casual nod does nothing to assuage Tony’s concerns. “’Harvest’?”

Strange indicates the stick. Tony tells himself it’s _not_ a magic wand. “Just a small amount. It will tell me a great deal without us needing to involve the spirits themselves just yet.”

“Yeah, speaking of them.” Tony gestures around them. “Is the show over?”

“I have convinced them that I may be of help.”

“By walking into the room.”

Despite the line of questioning, Strange seems unperturbed. “I did a great deal more than that, though it’s understandable you were not able to perceive it.”

Tony refuses to be baited that transparently, no matter how tempting it is to respond. He makes a face and glances at Thor, and finds him looking copescetic with the idea. Tony, however, feels like this is begging for Round Two of Sit On The Possessed Person. “Do we, ah, need to put any containment plans in place?”

Strange shakes his head. “This will not be the same procedure as Mr. Odinson used. Think of it like dusting for fingerprints.”

“Spiritual forensics?”

Despite how much of a skeptical asshole Tony has to sound like, Strange just shrugs. With another look at Thor—who still seems okay with this—Tony says, “Mind if I bring in some backup?”

“If you feel you must. I would only ask that they not interfere.”

“This’ll be strictly hands off unless something...happens.”

Strange gives him another of those annoying little smiles. “Though I’m certain this will be entirely safe, it is, of course, your facility.”

“Actually, it’s Ms. Potts’ facility. I’m just leasing, and I’m pretty sure ghosts aren’t covered by landlord-tenant law. JARVIS?”

“Sir.”

“Fetch Rhodey and Rogers for me, would you?”

“Right away, sir.”

It takes about ten minutes for the two of them to drop what they’re doing and make their way to the ‘haunted’ lab. The once-over Strange gives Rogers has Tony wondering if the serum was really just a serum and if Erskine was really just a scientist.

They convene around the table, with Rogers and Rhodey flanking Tony and Thor adjacent to Strange. Tony gestures at the box. “All yours, Doctor.”

Strange gives everyone assembled an assessing look and takes up the branch. He starts by running his fingers over the designs of the box and murmuring something under his breath. After a few seconds of this, the _real_ show begins: smoky light bleeds off the lid, gold and red and black and dark blue, and pools around it like churning water. Rhodey and Rogers keep glancing at Thor for signs of warning; though he’s focused on what’s going on, Thor seems mostly relaxed. Tony moves over to a monitor and checks the sensors on the holotable. There are some interesting readings, but nothing that explains what he’s seeing.

Strange begins a series of repetitive gestures, almost like he’s drawing words in the air, and Thor’s eyes move like he’s reading something the rest of them can’t see. In response, the light gathers up into thin strands which braid themselves into a gleaming, shimmering rope. 

Tony is kind of disappointed—not at the display, but in how Strange doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything to make it happen. “So you just, wave your hands and say a few things, and that’s it?”

Thor shoots him about the sharpest look he’s gotten all day (and given that video conference call with Facilities Maintenance this morning that’s saying something). Strange smiles absently.

“Are the gestures you use to control a tablet or a smartphone not economic and simple, belying the power they wield?” He draws his hand back, and the gleaming rope follows, coiling and twisting as it tracks his movements. 

“Yeah but that’s _technology_ ,” Tony says. “It’s _designed_ that way on purpose.”

Rhodey says, his voice low, “Maybe you should let the man do his job.”

“It’s quite alright, Colonel. This is a basic task, interruptions are not a problem. And I don’t mind skepticism or curiosity about my work. Fear, that I would mind.” Strange turns the rope this way and that, considering it from numerous angles, and makes a new series of gestures. Tony is about to reiterate himself when Strange says, “The power beneath your technology’s design is amazingly complex, and the design exists to make control of that power simpler.” 

“So you’re basically just using some kind of API.”

Strange actually laughs. His new motions are supercoiling the light rope into an even tighter strand. “In a manner of speaking, though it’s a more subtle relationship in the case of magic. Magic is a living power, with its own agenda. We are its focuses in the same way we channel it into focuses of our own. As surely as we are using it, it is using us.” His eyes meet Thor’s, and Thor nods in agreement. Strange flicks his fingers and the line of light wraps around the stick and sinks into the grain, giving the wood a soft, dark glow. “There. Let’s see what this reveals.”

Rhodey runs a hand over his mouth. “Did you just...tie a ghost up onto your baton there?”

“Not a ghost. A fragment of the internal essence held by what was once a person.”

Tony says, “A piece of their soul,” trying not to sound too sarcastic. By the disparaging look Strange gives him, he didn’t even come close.

“Nothing so ghoulish,” Strange says. “This is spiritual energy. Think of the soul not as that which is contained, but as a vessel in and of itself. This is what that vessel holds.”

Hesitantly, Rogers says, “So that was—spiritual blood?”

“An excellent analogy, Captain.”

Rogers grimaces. “So what are you going to do with it?”

“Now, I’m going to examine it, and see where it came from and possibly what it has encountered. Mr. Odinson, if you would join me, I think your presence would be helpful.” Strange gazes around the lab, and his eyes fall on an empty workbench (one of the ghosts—spirits, whatever—had helpfully swept everything off it last night) towards the back. “That will do.”

“And we just stand here and wait?” Tony asks. Strange gives him a wry smile.

“Unfortunately, since you are all living humans without the ability to magically shield yourselves, you could skew the results of what I see if you’re too close. I could attempt to shield all three of you myself, but that would be draining for me and distract from the investigation. Mr. Odinson isn’t human, so shouldn’t pose a problem, and he might even see some things I won’t. You may wish to otherwise occupy yourselves—this could take us some time.”

Tony actually thinks Strange just wants one on one time with Thor and has come up with an excellent reason none of them can easily refute, but keeps this to himself. Thor nods, and he and Strange move to the far bench. 

Rhodey and Rogers exchange uneasy looks. “Now what?” Rhodey asks, eyes on Strange and Thor.

“Lunch,” Tony says.

Rogers frowns at him. “Lunch?”

“You think we should just leave them here?” Rhodey says.

“I’m not saying we should go across town, just, we order in lunch and eat it down the hall or upstairs.” He eyes a collection of computer hardware that was definitely not piled up on the floor earlier in the morning. “Somewhere that it’s not going to get dumped on us.” 

“And where whatever they’re doing won’t blow up on us?” Rogers says, eyebrows raised. Tony shrugs.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. Strange will do his ghost blood spectroscopy and tell us how to make these guys leave.” He turns towards the lab door and waves his arm. “Come on. I’m buying. Tacos and horchata for everyone.”


End file.
